Team “McCoco,” Caty McNally and Coco Gauff Win Doubles Title at Citi Open for First WTA Tour Crown

(August 3, 2019) WASHINGTON, D.C. – Catherine “Caty” McNally and Cori “Coco” Gauff captured the Citi Open women’s doubles title on Saturday at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center. The United States pair, playing together for just the second time as a team beat fourth seeded team of Maria Sanchez of the U.S. and Hungary’s Fanny Stollar 6-2, 6-2 to claim their first WTA Tour title. The first time that “Team McCoco” paired up, they won the US Open Junior Girls’ doubles title.

Asked why they like playing together, the 15-year-old Gauff said: “For me, for Caty, it’s her positive energy. She’s always to positive. I know today she wasn’t able to pull it off, but her attitude was so positive, you wouldn’t even know.”

McNally responded: “My favorite thing about Coco is honestly she’s just so laid back, so silly, I think, and super easy to get along with.”

“I mean, it was pretty much a last-minute thing to play together. I was actually thinking about playing with someone else, and then once I knew that Coco was in, I decided to play with her. I just know that we’re such a good doubles team, and we just have chemistry.”

“I thought this week was super good, ” Gauff added. “Like we didn’t even know we were playing together. Before the tournament we were lucky enough to get a wild card, and I’m glad that we were able to get that and we were able to take advantage of this opportunity.”

“I think for me, and I think for both of us, it means a lot,” Gauff said. “Obviously we want to do well in singles, but I think we just love competing in general, so whether it’s singles or doubles, we want to win no matter what. So I think that we really get as nervous as we do in doubles as we do in singles because we just want to make the other one proud.”

“Yeah, it means so much to both of us, obviously,” McNally added. “I got my first main draw WTA singles and doubles win, and I wasn’t even thinking this far. I was just taking it match by match, and I’m so happy that we were able to get the title.”

Coco Gauff and Caty McNally photo by Chad Lominick

The 17-year-old McNally lost in the semifinals earlier in the day to Camila Giorgi 7-6, 6-2. I was McNally’s first ever final four at a WTA event. Earlier in the week, it was the Cincinnati teen’s first WTA Tour main draw match win in singles.

“Well, pretty much everything was surreal. I went into this tournament with zero expectation, so I mean, just how I did result-wise was surreal, and then just the support, every time we walked out on court it was packed stands, so much support, and yeah, I mean, it just means a lot,” Gauff said.

“Team McCoco” are looking forward to play together at the US Open and feel that they will do well.

“I mean, I don’t put any expectations, but I honestly believe that we can,” said Gauff. “We can do whatever we want when we put our minds to it, so I’m not going to say, oh, let’s just see what happens. I think our goal is to win it, and I think we’re not going to expect anything, we’re just going to expect to play our best, but I’m not going to say let’s see how far we can go because I think to be honest the way we’re playing we can go as far as we want.”